Vehicle systems that travel on routes may travel on defined trips from starting or departure locations to destination or arrival locations. Each trip may extend along the route for long distances, and the trip may include one or more designated stops along the trip prior to reaching the arrival location, such as for a crew change, refueling, picking up or dropping off passengers and/or cargo, and the like. Some vehicle systems travel according to trip plans that provide instructions for the vehicle system to implement during movement of the vehicle system such that the vehicle system meets or achieves certain objectives during the trip. The objectives for the trip may include reaching the arrival location at or before a predefined arrival time, increasing fuel efficiency (relative to the fuel efficiency of the vehicle system traveling without following the trip plan), abiding by speed limits and emissions limits, and the like. The trip plans may be generated to achieve the specific objectives, so the instructions provided by the trip plans are based on those specific objectives.
Traveling according to trip plans can provide various benefits, such as fuel economy, as long as the objectives of the trip plan are relevant to the operations of the vehicle system. For example, the objective of increasing fuel efficiency is beneficial to the vehicle system as the vehicle system travels along an open section of the route at a planned running speed, but the same trip plan is not as beneficial if the section of the route has maintenance, congestion, or other constraints that limit the speed of the vehicle system to a speed below the planned running speed. In another example, the objective of increasing fuel economy is also not relevant near the designated stop locations (including the arrival location) along the route because the vehicle system has to travel at slow speeds to stop at the stop locations. Due to these issues, some operators of the vehicle system may choose to not follow the trip plan.